The 2019 award season has thankfully come to a close, and with it another round of watching the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and the Oscars shutting women directors and cinematographers out of the nominating experience.

But who, at this late date, is really surprised? The Hollywood Male Mafia that permeates the membership lists of these organizations continue to refuse women artists the right to creative recognition in their fields. And for some reason, the #TimesUp movement is content to remain silent when it comes to organizing any action.

And yet, that's only half the equation. The other half is made of of the women artists themselves, who ceaselessly keep creating wonderful films, but who also refuse to raise their own collective voices in protest. "We let our work speak for itself", is a common refrain, but the real truth may lie in the shadows of Let's-Not-Rock-The-Boat Land.

Cine Mata prefers to let a few of the artists speak for themselves here, in hope that the 2020 response to this systematic discrimination will be more fearless, fierce and LOUD.

"Women in Hollywood have no male allies. There are some who pretend to be on our side, but yeah, not really. They may say the right thing because, after all, they're liberals & that's a public image they'd like to keep up." LEXI ALEXANDER * Director

Ms. Alexander is 100% correct. After all, how many male directors, cinematographers and actors raised their voices in protest - during award season - at the lack of female nominees for Best Director or Best Cinematographer? Answer: NONE

"Hollywood is a very old and very structured situation. There's still a lot of old boys at the top who have the money." GILLIAN ARMSTRONG * Director

"I would like the [film] industry to be more aware of what they're doing to influence people for good and for bad. There's no doubt that we're affected by our environment." DOROTHY ARZNER * Director

"Don't let a culture or society's rules define who you are; you define who you are." AMMA ASANTE * Director

"The sexism in Hollywood is not particularly overt - because the system is good at hiding it." ELIZABETH BANKS * Director, Actress and Producer

MGM's Oscar-winning Supervising Film Editor for 29 yrs *

pioneer of “invisible cutting”, making the transition from one image to another flow seamlessly. * MARGARET BOOTH * Film Editor

"I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population & gave birth to the whole world. Without them the rest [of the world] aren't getting to know the whole story." * JANE CAMPION * Director

"There's so many more female directors than when I started. That's encouraging." Sofia Coppola * Director

"I wanted to tell a story that was authentic to African-American culture...I wanted it to be more like a foreign film and so deeply into the culture that it appeared to be foreign." JULIE DASH * Director

"In Hollywood, there is one dominant voice. It is a white, male, straight gaze. When I talk about positive portrayals of black people and women, I'm saying complexity." AVA DUVERNAY * Director

"I think all of us, looking back on our careers and our lives, there'll probably be a "road not taken" that we'll regret & mourn...artists will always feel that way, especially when the path taken was more commercial than the one not taken." LIZ GARBUS * Director

"I don't want people saying, 'Should we get a female director?' I want to hear, 'Should we get a great director for this movie?' " ANGELINA JOLIE * Actor, Director and Humanitarian

"The biggest challenges are always getting into the rooms that you need to get into & having ppl open to the types of stories that I want to tell...I feel that just being a female director and doing that is a big deal in this country."KASI LEMMONS * Director

"I'd love to see more women working as directors and producers." IDA LUPINO * The first woman to direct a noir film * Director, Actor

"My advice for other female directors: don't think of your gender as a handicap. Don't think about it at all. Just tell the best story you can, and don't stop until you do." REED MORANO * Director and Cinematographer

"Creative freedom is an imperative for me, but it doesn't really exist in a Hollywood game." MIRA NAIR * Director

"You have to figure out how you can step forward and affect your own life. I think that sense of empowerment is actually really positive..." JENNIFER YUH NELSON * Director of Kung Fu Panda films

"It got so I'd lent my voice to so many others that I felt it no longer belonged to me. It was eerie; I had lost part of myself."